Home is Wherever I'm With You
by Softersoul98
Summary: While you were sitting in the backseat smoking a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last, I was falling deep, deeply in love with you, and I never told you till just now.   Tifa x ?


**Home is Wherever I'm With You  
**_Final Fantasy VII_

**By**: Softersoul98

**Author's Note**: I want to see the reaction to this chapter before I write any others. Hopefully enough people will read/review who like it! Read on!

**Chapter 1: Strangers**

Sometimes the pain is too crushing. My chest is constricted, my breathing shallow. My body is falling back into itself. The ends of my hair hurt. My heart... it hurts... It's pathetic. Who ever heard of irrevocably falling in love with someone who doesn't even love you back? Who DOES that? What mature, reasonable adult lacks the ability to simply let go? So much time has passed since her death. He had a reason to keep going. And once that was over, he died a little too. Distant, cold, his eyes no longer shining with resolve or passion... That's who I'm in love with. A damn zombie. He heroically puts of a facade from time to time, and I think he does it so I don't feel so depressed. It doesn't work, and he knows I know it. But we keep pretending. What else can we do? All night and day he sits in the backyard, dreaming, pretending, playing over the memories. He stares at the sky, as if waiting for something to come and take him away. For someone to come and tell him everything will be alright. But nothing ever does. And no one ever comes. Forever, he sits alone...

We live in a small, cozy home in Nibelheim. The empty shell of our hometown. Everyone else went back. Barrett to Kalm, Cid to Rocket Town, Red to Cosmo Canyon... Everyone else... is gone. Happy, content. Living a life with direction, love, friendship. And we're here. Alone together. Ironic, huh? But mostly, it's like... I'm here. Alone. He's just... Kind of over there. In the corner. I have to keep a watch over him. Watch him loving her. All he wants is to see her again. I understand that. I would feel the same way. I want to help him, I really do, but I don't know where to begin. He's been so secluded lately, I don't even see him until dinnertime, when we eat silently. Hungeringly, me for him, and him for her. All the words in the world could not fill the void that permeates the atmosphere. But every night after dinner he says the same thing: "Thanks, Tifa. It was delicious." Thanks, Tifa. It was delicious. Is that it? I reply with the same thing: "You're welcome." We exchange only those words, those sad sentences. The same kinds of words of exchanged by a waitress and a customer; the same kinds of sentences exchanged by strangers.

I'm hoping that one day he'll come back to me. He'll open up and let me in. Let me help him. As it is, he won't. He probably never will. Something in him died along with Sephiroth. And it never came back.

Tifa awoke to the sound of silence. It wasn't even dawn yet. She laid on her back, blinking. She felt urgent. Something was wrong. Tifa bolted upright, throwing her sheets away from her. She scrambled to put on her socks. As she reached the closed door of her bedroom, she stopped. Anxious. Scared. Tentatively, she opened the door. Silence. Not peaceful silence. She felt tense. As she moved through the hallway, she knew something was off. Cloud. She ran towards his room, abandoning all care. Almost colliding with the door, she threw it open.

It was empty. His bed, neatly made, left no imprint. No inkling that he was there. Everything was in order. It could have belonged in a hotel. A letter lay in the middle of the room, standing out as an anomoly in the background. Tifa began to read it. Shaking, she lowered herself onto the bed. As she read the letter, realizations dawned over her. Tears began to stain the page. Cloud was gone. Looking for a way to bring Aeris back. Don't look for me, Tifa. I won't be coming back. I'm sorry. There are too many things I can't explain right now... Although reduced to tears by the letter, Tifa felt almost as if she was a different person. She felt as if she wasn't the Tifa in the letter. As if Cloud was not the Cloud who wrote it.

But then she realized. A stranger had moved into this home with her. And a stranger had left. And that was that.

**Author's Note**: Thank you so much for reading! I would appreciate any reviews. This is my first story in a VERY long time on a new account. I'm considering linking my old penname on my profile so people can read my old writing. Anyway, please review and give me any advice, tell me what you'd like to read, etc! I'd love to write anything that people would really like to see, especially if it's something I can get on board with. Anyway, it's great to be writing again. Please review!


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